"Grace to You" Continues to Rage Against Contextualization

To be honest, there isn't really much more to say in response to the current series of blog posts that is being featured on the Grace to You (the ministry connected to John Macarthur) web site.  There is a third offering today and I suppose it will be followed by others, but again, if you do not accept the unsubstantiated assumptions that they begin with, everything else falls apart.  And by the way, I really wish GTY hadn't disabled commenting on their blog as I would love a more direct conversation with them about this.  Perhaps they will re-enable commenting soon.


Catching you up -- My responses to GTY's anti-contextualization series PART 1, PART 2


GTY continues to essentially equate contextualization with a selling out of the gospel, which it fundamentally is not.  Today's post on their site doesn't add to that or really say anything constructive at all.  It simply stoops to new lows in its slandering of those who are pursuing contextualization as missionaries of the gospel.  Here's a brief quote:

By contrast, the “contextualization” of the gospel today has infected the church with the spirit of the age. It has opened the church’s doors wide for worldliness, shallowness, and in some cases a crass, party atmosphere. The world now sets the agenda for the church.

This is demonstrated clearly in a book by James Davison Hunter, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia. Hunter surveyed students in evangelical colleges and seminaries, and concluded that evangelical Christianity has changed dramatically in the past three decades. He found that young evangelicals have become significantly more tolerant of activities once viewed as worldly or immoral—including smoking, using marijuana, attending R-rated movies, and premarital sex.

To blame contextualization for immorality is sad and wrong.  Further, it is more than a little hypocritical coming from those for whom the gospel and Christian life has already been contextualized.  In my humble opinion, GTY is a great ministry that has stumbled at this point.  Pastor Macarthur should rectify this matter.  These anti-contextualization slurs and slanders should be withdrawn.  GTY has accused falsely faithful missionaries and Christ-followers who are pursuing contextualization as incarnation at great personal cost and are seeing the Lord honor their work by bringing many souls into the family of God.  The so-called "church marketeers" are not the same thing as those who are pursuing contextualization and the equation of the two is irresponsible, unkind, and unprofitable for the family of God.